ARPA-E Summit Showcases Alternative Energy Concepts

Alternative energy ideas were on parade last month at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Innovation Summit in the nation’s capital. The event allowed energy startups to pitch their ideas to potential investors and venture capitalists.

The folks over at the IEEE highlighted some of the more off-the-wall technologies on display.Eight companies were selected out of more than 300 applicants to make their pitches at the Summit.

First, there was Altenera Technology’s rotation-free wind turbine (BreezBee). The company has designed hexagonal panels that use vibratory reeds to make energy using Faraday fields. Gravaton Energy Resources, meanwhile, showed off its plans for a device that captures energy from ambient air temperature via pressure changes inside a cylinder connected to a turbine. The company claims it could produce electricity at 2 cents per kilowatt-hour from a 100-kw plant that measured 20 by 30 ft.

Transatomic Power, on the other hand, proposed creating molten salt reactors that dissolve nuclear waste into a flouride salt form (rather than using solid uranium). The company claims it can build smaller reactors for less money (around $1.7 billion) that use up to 97% or 98% of the nuclear fuel.

HEVO presented a wireless charging concept for electric vehicles that uses an embedded device that can be deployed in parking lots and on city streets, in combination with an onboard wireless receiver in the vehicle.